This invention is in the field of receivers for information modulated onto light waves. In particular, it concerns information carried by the "tail" of a TEA laser. Light-wave communications are well known in the art, including those systems employing lasers as the channel. Such systems, when using lasers, are usually point-to-point using low-power, continuous-wave (CW) laser outputs modulated by some electro-optical device. Pulsed laser outputs are not normally used because of the difficulties of modulating extremely short (and often high peak power) output pulses. The pulsed TEA laser, however, has an output envelope which may be used to advantage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,517, by the present inventors and one other, shows a TEA laser pulse-code transmitter. This envelope has a fast-rise-time and high-intensity pulse which rapidly decays into a relatively long low-intensity tail. A receiver for receiving CW lasers might be damaged by such a high-intensity pulse, or at least temporarily blinded. The ideal requirements for a receiver of information on a TEA laser output are: low sensitivity during the high-intensity portion of the output, and high sensitivity during the tail thereof. The instant invention meets these requirements.